McCann FitzGerald: Building out a digital services ecosystem for clients

SmartLaw: Expert insights for the future of law

HighQ was founded in 2001 and we have worked hard to build an exceptional reputation for delivering leading-edge software to some of the world's largest law firms, investment banks and corporations. We are a privately owned business and always strive to provide the best service possible to all of our clients.

Linklaters

HighQ Publisher revolutionises how the firm interacts with clients.

Summary

HighQ Publisher powers Linklaters’ global Knowledge Portal. Ian Rodwell, Head of Client Knowledge and Learning and Nick Andrews, Head of Digital Marketing, explain how HighQ Publisher is integral to the firm’s digital strategy.

Linklaters is one of the largest law firms in the world, with 5000 people in 29 offices in 20 countries. It produces a range of knowledge and learning materials for its clients globally. These include stop press alerts, newsletters, cross-border guides, factsheets, thought leadership reports, microsites, videos and podcasts. Keeping clients informed with relevant and informed publications is essential.

The challenge: Breaking away from the tyranny of the mailing list

Linklaters generates a large volume of industry and legal updates to benefit clients. This vast amount of material needs to be managed carefully, so clients only receive content specifically relevant to them and are not unnecessarily inundated with irrelevant information.

Back in 2011, the team at Linklaters acknowledged that the sheer quantity of information delivered by law firms to their clients can be overwhelming and risk being seen as a hindrance rather than a help. They wanted both to put clients in control of what they received and give them the ability to search and browse for information in an intuitive and user-friendly way.

Ian Rodwell, Head of Client Knowledge and Learning, explains: “We wanted to break away from the tyranny of the mailing list to put clients in control of what content they receive from us and give them the ability to select content by area of law, by sector, by country and by frequency of delivery,” he said. “In an ideal world this would mean just receiving the mailings that they set up rather than receiving multiple mailings.”

“We wanted to break away from the tyranny of the mailing list to put clients in control of what content they receive from us and give them the ability to select content by area of law, by sector, by country and by frequency of delivery.”

Ian Rodwell, Head of Client Knowledge and Learning, Linklaters

A single point of access was also a key driver of the project says Ian, “we wanted to give our clients a library of content and not just publications but also video, audio and content that could be browsed and filtered via a variety of different channels or metadata,” he said. “We wanted to give them a place to go where they could feel confident in getting all the client-facing content we produce.”

The solution: Placing the power of the firm’s knowledge in the clients’ hands

In 2016 Linklaters upgraded to the latest version of Publisher 4 which gave the team the opportunity to go back to their clients to get feedback about the knowledge portal and find out what the clients thought of the content they received, how easy it was to use, the interface and the look and feel of the alerts.

“One of the things we were pleasantly surprised with was the number of respondents,” said Ian. “We sent a simple email to all subscribers asking them to take a survey and we had around 300-400 responses so it was great to see that our content was resonating with people.”

Nick went on to explain that the feedback fell into three main categories, “the aim of the survey was to get feedback on design functionality and, from our internal perspective how our editors administer content,” he said. “There was also another focus around mobile device usage.”

“There has been a lot of investment in resource and infrastructure that has gone into the client knowledge portal and we wanted to make the most of that and make sure the upgrade would provide the best experience to our clients,” said Nick.

Ian adds, “our mantra was evolution, not revolution. It was mostly tweaks and design improvements that needed to be made and we still wanted the portal to have a sense of familiarity for our clients,” he said.

Linklaters took all the client feedback and pulled together a team of people to run the upgrade project. “It was a big project so a steering group was convened. The project ran for 10 months and a large part of that time was taken up with bringing people on the change journey, the design and client experience process, which invoked the most intense discussions , and a long User Acceptance Testing phase,” explained Nick. “We wanted to give a seamless service to our clients and the diligent work from our project teams and the hard-working HighQ consultants ensured the success of this project”.

The result: A complete content offering that is constantly evolving’ hands

After successfully upgrading and launching the new knowledge portal Linklaters have had some initial feedback from their clients which has been very positive. “The anecdotal responses have been pleasing and reflect some of the changes from the initial client feedback that we wanted to implement,” explains Ian. “They talk about how the portal is clear, easy to use navigate which is all very encouraging to hear.”

Linklaters has also seen a significant increase in the number of subscriptions. “The number of subscribers, visits and engagements have all significantly increased since the portal has gone live,” explains Nick. “I think this is down to the new user friendly format as well as the renewed focus on promoting it from our internal lawyer base.”

The number of subscribers, visits and engagements have all significantly increased since the portal has gone live,” explains Nick. “I think this is down to the new user friendly format as well as the renewed focus on promoting it from our internal lawyer base.”

Nick Andrews, Head of Digital Marketing, Linklaters

In terms of functionality Linklaters has seen a number of clients looking to aggregate the various feeds they receive from their law firms. “Publisher enables us to easily integrate and synchronise our content with whatever aggregator a client chooses to have, so it gives us that extra channel to get our content to our clients,” explains Ian.

“Another key piece of functionality is the responsive design,” explains Ian. “I was on the train to a client and they asked about a particular seminar that we had run and I wanted to check whether the video was live on the portal,” he explains. “It was such a pleasure being able to access the portal on my phone and to find the video so easily with everything adjusting to the size of the device rather than having to negotiate a desktop site on my phone and constantly resizing.”

The Linklaters team work very closely with HighQ to keep up to date on new features and provide input to future roadmaps. “We have a great relationship with HighQ and have regular conversations about new developments and features we would like to see,” explains Ian.

In conclusion: Revolutionising client interaction

Built on the HighQ Publisher platform, the Linklaters Knowledge Portal has revolutionised how the firm interacts with its clients. The portal makes knowledge sharing an interactive process so clients can determine precisely what material they wish to view or receive, and they can dictate the frequency and delivery method. The newly upgraded portal offers even more flexibility and is easier to use and navigate and Linklaters have seen a significant increase in the number of subscriptions since the portal has gone live.

￼￼About HighQ

HighQ is a leading provider of secure document exchange and team collaboration software. We provide innovative collaboration and publishing products to some of the world’s leading law firms, investment banks and corporations. We uniquely combine secure, enterprise-grade document management with the best corporate social tools. Now you can securely exchange critical business information and collaborate with colleagues, customers and partners in one unified space.

About Linklaters

Linklaters LLP is a leading global law firm, supporting clients in achieving their strategies wherever they do business. We use our expertise and resources to help clients pursue opportunities and manage risk across emerging and developed markets around the world.